Memory:Mitch Freedman

From The Gentle Giant Home Page

I happened to be in England--my one trip to Europe--in the late summer of 1977. The Missing Piece album was being advertised in the Melody Maker magazine just before it was to be released by Chrysalis Records in England. This was a couple of months before the American release.

I walked into Chrysalis Records in London and asked if they had any info on the new Gentle Giant album. I waited in the reception area for about 20 minutes, sitting next to the manager for a new band Chrysalis had recently signed called Generation X (some guy named Billy Idol was in that punk band!). Then, I was called into the office and was introduced to a Chrysalis Records executive and....Derek Shulman, who also happened to be there.

I was all of 20 years old and I was completely speechless--a rarity for me! Anyway, Derek gave me a copy of the "single" of "I'm turning around"--off the new album. "Going for the top 40!" or something like that, he said. He and the record company exec then gave me the Gentle Giant "Missing Piece" Puzzle and all the publicity stuff I needed. I had told them, truthfully, that I had just started writing record reviews for my college newspaper (Rutgers University in NJ). When I returned to my room at the local hostel, I noted the puzzle they gave me was missing a piece. I had been shown the album cover for the new album as well so I thought, and still wonder, "Was this the one they used for the album cover?"

I write since the photo in your site that you've just released this month, January 2002, is of that puzzle. (Editor's Note: This puzzle was a promotional item.)